Have a question not already answered in the links at left or on our main
FAQ page?
Ask it above.

Location: Japan

Member Since: Dec. 08, 2011

S. Michael Choi

Biography

S. Michael Choi has spent the last decade examining the socio-political revolutionary changes on the Asian continent. From Shanghai to Tokyo, his keen eye for detail and observations about the subtlety of cultures that are in transition from the Post-War era towards influences in Americana are captured in visceral narratives that transcend the beauty of the ordinary life. His prose, often humourous and filled with Classical influences display a 'bon mot' witticism that has been lost on the Digital Generation that has grown up in the fast pace of life on the internet and mobile devices.

S. Michael Choi is a graduate of Columbia University and is currently climbing the mountains of China.

Smashwords Interview

When did you first start writing?

I began writing as a child when I produced little "newsletters" for my family. It's been a lifelong habit, I guess you'd say, and then I wrote for my high school and then my university's literary magazine(s). Writing is a calling rather than a hobby, and in the end, it's you and the mirror staring back, saying, "write." Of course, the question of what to write may evolve in your lifetime, but that's probably a question that's coming up in this interview.

What's the story behind your latest book?

My latest book "Avola's Peril" is sort of a counter-reaction to my sci-fi work, CITY OF GHOSTS. After you write one work, you end up with some accumulated feelings and storylines that 'bounce back' upon the immediate previous work. Since I wrote a zombie novel, the balance of feeling swung like a pendulum, and the sensation came, "write a fantasy work now." So that's AVOLA'S PERIL which is my first fantasy work, set on the wind world Hastur, featuring gnomes and elves and guilds rather than the sci-fi conventions of robots or zombie plagues.

Books

On the Windworld, Hastur, the nobility soon ascends to the cloud isles. But will the guildmaster Valentine of the steelforgers or the guildmistress of the doll-crafters more successfully alter the legend of Avola to their own ends? Scribe IV records his squireship of the princess of blades, and the dimming of the city of Caracosa as the age of Man falls.

In the aftermath of genetic plague, human beings are transformed into white-eyed 'Happy' zombies, and the remnants of uninfected society live in heavily fortified compounds. One such group leader, 838, records in his diary the travails of day-to-day life over a winter where the water freezes and the infected New Humans stage periodic raids. But is the greater threat other survivors, their clans?

Slipstream examination of 4.5 years in Shanghai, featuring Nick Forteaux, Sany Music scout and the art rock scene, or is it all about the delightful song-and-dance girls 877, 855, and 822? Girlfriend-boyfriend relationships in Shangers, China, with some light near-future sci-fi with regard to the expat experience, hot Chinese girls, the revolution, and being lost and abroad.

In the year 2071, a 74-year-old man begins writing his memoirs... the world has survived extensive glaciation, but how will the global power New Atlantis survive the GEIST onslaught? Which white walker mechs will battle what Geist abomination, and what is the true story of the culture hero Genevieve? Science fiction with a Happy Science twist, and revelation of the end days.

Ritchie Ufuo, recent graduate of a Pennsylvania university, moves to Tokyo where he runs into the champagne-and-cocaine Soren Soutern. The louche, high-spending, high-octane group of Japan expats introduce a new world to him, but at what cost and to what outcome? Japan around the turn of the century, with ecstasy and cocaine flowing, and the future apparently limitless...

The young blue-body-painted girls of the Portland Poets' Collective merely want to rain-dance in peace--but the CDC has other plans. Science and mysticism collide in "Sweets for the Sweet," where reiki practioners study the darker side of their craft, and big data comes CRUNCHing in with plenty of capital and firepower.

Tatiana, the new girl, arrived in English IIIA amidst a murmur of expectation. We had already heard a beautiful "Russian princess" was coming to our own boring little neck of New Jersey, and her first impression on us was no disappointment...
the SAT-cramming students of a high academic north New Jersey high school welcome a Russian exchange student; and lives are forever changed...

200 K-pop obsessed Japanese girls at a language learning programme in Seoul; transliteration of who said what to who when and where in three languages. a handful of foreign guys? an ex-German with a chip on his shoulder? talking green elephant? minor riff on Yale & Seattle.

Smashwords book reviews by S. Michael Choi

Test Pilot
on Dec. 04, 2012
Solid four stars **** for "test pilot" which is short story speculating on circumstances of first FTL craft sometime in future. Characters--and prose--have a "gee whiz" buck Rogers quality of 1950s america or an essentially happy person. Considering how much filler there is on smash words, this is worth one's time, and I won't be deleting from my library

Blue Haired Alien Girlfriend
on Dec. 04, 2012
the second Carroll I've read. again, same feeling, I will echo some of Hickory Cole's comments, certain sentences, lines should be pared down, but more skillful than most of the stuff on Smashwords. capture of a certain kind of sentiment the best point; some weak spots (a phrase here, a word choice there) do not otherwise mar a solid 4****

The Call of the Sea
on Dec. 04, 2012
literary fiction is the hardest to write (check out the 1000s of LGBT fanfics and 1000s of scifi books here on Smashwords and single-digits of lit fic). 4****s for some evocative descriptions of seaside England, nice riff on Russian girl alone in West.
like much debut works, needs some paring down to take it to the "new Yorker" magazine level, but otherwise a solid 4/5 work worth a read

Let The World Die
on May 01, 2013
about as good as 480 words can get. "flash fiction" may not be established as a genre, but times are slowly liberalizing towards this word-length